By Fr. Roy Cimagala
WE should relish this truth of our faith. God wants to share what he has with us. He takes the initiative. That he created us without us, endowing us with all sorts of things, foremost of which are our spiritual faculties and the grace which is already a participation in his divine life, are proofs of this tremendous truth of our faith.
It really would just depend on how receptive we are to this divine sharing to attain what is ultimately good for us. We have to learn how to be more and more receptive to this divine initiative, sharpening our faith to enable us to do our part despite the many mysterious ways this divine initiative works.
That he sent his son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us from our state of sinfulness is another proof of this divine initiative. That Christ calls us to be holy, to be perfect, (cfr. 1 Pt 1,16; Mt 5,14) as our heavenly father is holy and perfect, which is what a vocation really is, is actually a call for us to be receptive to this divine initiative.
There really should be no doubt that God wants to share what he has with us. That God became man in Christ and that a woman can become the mother of the very son of God, that is, God himself, further prove that God and us are meant to share the very same life and nature, with God taking the initiative.
Thus, in all our needs, especially in the area of the spiritual and the moral, and even of the material, we should not hesitate to ask God for a favor. His delight is precisely to share what he has with us.
All this would obviously require of us to practice and live our faith to the full, knowing that the ways of God can be very mysterious to us. The way he shares what he has with us can go beyond our understanding, our common sense, our human estimation of things.
Thus, we need to find practical ways to learn how to be immediately and properly receptive and responsive to God’s initiative, to his sharing of his life and nature with us. Like, right in the morning as we wake up, the first thing that we should try to do is to address ourselves to God, offering ourselves and everything that we will be doing for the day to him.
It’s important that right from the beginning of the day, we get strongly focused on God. He should be the center of our life, of our thoughts, desires, words and deeds. And all throughout the day, we should try our best to keep this awareness alive.
Thus, we should avail ourselves of some effective plan of life to drive this kind of awareness going. Some practices of piety like periods of mental prayer and contemplation, spiritual reading, receiving the sacraments especially the Holy Mass and Communion, and other devotional means, would be helpful.
The ideal is that the whole day should be spent with God who, in the first place, is always around. He is in us and around us. He is wherever we are, and his presence is actually active, full of solicitude for us. We need to perceive this reality and act according to it.
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
